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Thursday, March 14, 2013

''THIS IS A WAKE UP CALL TO ENGLISH FOOTBALL'' WENGER URGES EPL CLUBS TO LEARN FROM CHAMPIONS LEAGUE OUSTER AFTER 17 YEARS

Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger has warned English
football to learn from its demise in this year’s Champions League after his side beat Bayern Munich 2-0 at the Allianz Arena but failed to reach the last eight.

Despite winning the Bundesliga giant 2-0 on the night, the Gunners were unable to overhaul the 3-1 deficit from the first leg. They
went out on away goals, an agonising exit which leaves England with no
representative in the last eight of the Champions League for the first
time in 17 years.

‘It is a massive disappointment for
English football,’ said Wenger.

‘It’s a massive wake-up call for us to
have Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal all out in
the quarter-finals.

'The rest of European football has
caught up with us and we have to take that into consideration about the
way we think about the future of the Premier League.’Arsenal were given hope of pulling
off a remarkable victory when Olivier Giroud scored in the third minute
and Laurent Koscielny got another four minutes from time.

But Wenger confessed there were ‘many
regrets’ from the defeat in London against Bayern, rated among the
favourites to win the competition, and in particular the crucial third
goal late on scored by Mario Mandzukic.‘We went close and I’m very proud of
the performance of the team,’ said the Frenchman.

‘But I am very
disappointed for everyone who follows Arsenal that we could not get a
third goal.

'There was room to score and we have
many regrets from the first game. Qualifying is about 180 minutes and
for the first 90 we were not at our best.‘Still, we felt it was feasible to
knock Bayern out. We had a plan and we respected it. At least we have
shown we have the quality to be there.

‘You could see the weight of that third goal we gave away with three minutes to go in the first leg. That was massive.

Wenger refused
to give details on his reasons for dropping his captain Thomas
Vermaelen, one of five changes from the first leg.

He also left out goalkeeper Wojciech
Szczesny and was rewarded with an excellent display from goalkeeper
Lukasz Fabianski and his back four.